Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Freezer Paper "Screen Printing"

My new friend, Celtic Mommy, suggested that my family might like to create our own "screen printed" t-shirts using a simple freezer paper method that she learned over at The Angry Chicken. I had heard of this type of craft before, but hadn't gotten around to trying it ... until I saw what she and her 3 year old produced- and then just had to participate!

So Isaac and I headed over to our best friend's house (Aunty Missy) ... with all the fixins' ... and began to create some masterpieces:

I have yet to produce any sort of tutorial on this blog, but the instructions for for making freezer-paper "screen printed" creations are pretty simple:

* Find or create the image that you would like to put on your cloth.* Trace it onto the matte side of freezer paper.*Carefully cut out image.* Iron freezer paper onto cloth (shiny side down).* Slip paper or cardboard inside of your shirt (or other material) so that your paint does not seep through.* Liberally apply textile paint (other acrylic paints will also do) to your template - trying not to create brush strokes by applying pressure - just sort of move the paint around and let it seep in.* Allow to dry for a couple hours OR blow-dry (we opted to blow dry).* When dry - carefully peel off freezer paper, then heat set your work by placing a sheet of paper over the image and then iron over that paper. It is important not to iron the image directly at this point...but you may do so later.* Lastly, ENJOY. And wash as normal.

My girlfriend "screen printed" the most amazing silhouette of her daughter on to a sweatshirt. She did this by using a photo she had taken of her daughter. She simply enlarged the photo on her computer, printed it out, traced the outline onto freezer paper, and followed the rest of the steps. It looks SO great ... and sh was able to carefully transfer some nice detail - like the feathering of her hair, etc. My girlfriend has an amazing way of taking every art project a step further:

She joked that she would apply a silhouette image of each of her children to the rear pockets of her jeans. I think its a great idea! Then her kids would move along to the beat of her booty :)

I hope you all find the time to share in the freezer paper fun. Please feel free to ask any questions, as my directions may be lacking.